Page 37 - F-35 and Transformation

The F-35 and The Transformation of the Power Projection Forces

THE SEA SERVICES PREPARE TO PREVAIL IN THE EXTENDED BATTLESPACE: THE
PERSPECTIVE OF REAR ADMIRAL MANAZIR

By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake

The decade ahead is not a repeat of the past 15 years; it is not about a continuation of the land-centric and
counter-insurgency slow motion war.

It is about global agility, the ability to insert force to achieve discrete and defined objectives, and to
maneuver in the extended battlespace to work with allies and joint forces to credibly prevail in the range of
military conflict across the range of military operational situations.

For the power projection forces –USN/ USMC, USAF with appropriate elements of the US Army, especially
Air Defense Artillery – it is about the capability to work across an extended battlespace with flexible means
which can be linked together as necessary to prevail in the military and strategic conditions facing the US and
its allies in the period ahead.

It is about building capabilities at the high end, which have the flexibility to operate through the range of
military operations or ROMO.

It is about powerful and flexible force packages which can operate and dominate in specific military
situations but be linked to other capabilities to provide the kind of reachback and dominance which effective
deterrence requires.

In our book on the Rebuilding American Military Power in the Pacific: A 21st Century Strategy, we
highlighted several key elements required to shape 21st century war winning deterrent forces.

By leveraging some of the new platforms coming online and replacing older, costly, and stove-piped platforms
and systems, a new scalable force structure can be built. And at the heart of doing so will be the inclusion of allies
and U.S. forces within a modular scalable structure.

The strategy is founded on having platform presence. By deploying assets such as USCG assets— for example,
the national Security Cutter, USN surface platforms, Aegis, or other surface assets— by deploying subsurface
assets, and by having bases forward deployed, the United States has core assets that if networked together can
end a stovepiped acquisition strategy of platforms bought separately from one another and make significant
gains in capability possible. Scalability is the crucial glue to make a honeycomb force possible…

Two other key elements are basing and weaponization. Basing becomes transformed as allied and U.S.
capabilities become blended into a scalable presence and engagement capability. Presence is rooted in basing;
scalability is inherently doable because of C5ISR enablement, deployed decision-making, and honeycomb
robustness.

The reach from Japan to South Korea to Singapore to Australia is about how allies are reshaping their forces and
working toward greater reach and capabilities. For example, by shaping a defense strategy that is not simply a
modern variant of Sitzkreig in South Korea and Japan, more mobile assets allow states in the region to reach out,
back, and up to craft coalition capabilities.

The approach we have suggested is built around “no platform fights alone,” whereby we look at key
platforms as nodes in a honeycomb force, which can act with effective lethality throughout an extended
battlespace.

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